Our opinion: A closer inspection affirms ISIS terror

Danny Sims photo A cross remains atop the rubble of a church in Sinjar, a city in the Kurdish region of Iraq that's about the size of Abilene. Go to wwww.reporternews.com to watch a video of the stone cross in the left foreground being cleaned and placed there.

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Published on: 7/3/2016

Seeing is believing.

Danny Sims, who heads Abilene-based Global Samaritan Resources, recently spent a week in Iraq. Six days where most of us wouldn't want to be.

Global has been part of a relief effort led by the Barzani Charity Foundation for the Yazidis in northern Iraq, a target of ISIS. The foundation was started in 2005 by Kurdish leader Masrour Barzani to aid refugees and the internally displaced.

One million soup meals have been shipped to the region via U.S. Air Force C-130s. That's not nearly enough, Sims knows, but he wanted to make sure the supplies we were sending were getting to the people in need.

He flew commercial to the region to see for himself. His connections put him in contact with a former member of special forces, now in his 60s, who is volunteering his know-how and knows his way around.

Back in Abilene last week, Sims reported that, yes, the meals are getting to the right destination and that the horrific impact of ISIS is everything we've heard, and more. His photos of a bleak landscape made more bleak by mass destruction are compelling.

He was taken to Sinjar, a city with a population estimated to be that of Abilene. The city is in ruins and is largely a ghost town. Bodies in the open were untouched, an appalling thought. Why? They could be booby trapped.

The residents who survived slaughter and abuse in 2014 fled to nearby Mount Sinjar, where water is scarce. ISIS personnel then blew up the city. Photos show exactly that — ruins and few people.

A cross stands atop the rubble of a Christian church in one photo. While the Kurdish people are mostly Muslim, a minority are Christians.

Their is no infrastructure to recover, as there would be here and in other countries. About 70 families have tried to move back into the city. Or what's left of it.

Part of Global's mission is serve the people who would be considered our enemy. What Sims reemphasized is that the huddled masses there are not our enemy. In this region, they are begging for the world to help and wish for peace. They do not want to be international refugees or refugees in their own country. They want ISIS pushed out and to be able to live in their homeland.

'Maybe 99.9 percent of the people wants the same things we do, peace and prosperity and to be able to raise their families,' Sims told us. They do not agree with the ideology of radical Islam, he said.

Americans have heard this many times. So had Sims, but he wanted to see for himself.

Their homeland is Kurdistan, which sounds like one of the several 'stan' ('place of') countries but is a Middle East region inhabited by mostly Kurdish people that is centered between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

Carpet bombing ISIS, as one former presidential candidate suggested, also could mean killing these innocent people, Sims said. He can't imagine more horror being heaped on those who've suffered already.

When Dr. Kent Brantly recovered from Ebola, he emphasized that the battle against the deadly disease must be waged in Africa, where it originates. A front line there not only would provide a quicker response to an outbreak, it would better ensure Ebola does not leap across oceans — our greatest fear. Cases in the United States startled us — scared us — to that reality two summers ago.

Sims believes the same logic can be applied to the immigration issue. If people were not forced to flee, immigration would be less of an issue in the U.S., Europe — wherever. Our fears that people from this war-torn region intend us harm on our soil, or ISIS would mix in with refugees, would be mitigated.

Sims carefully walks the fine line of humanitarian efforts and turbulent politics. It's easy to step enthusiastically but blindly one way or the other. Sims said our view of the Middle East is a conflict itself: Truth vs. fear.

Global's mission requires it to stay away from politics and simply help people. Even our 'enemies.' He plans to go to churches and groups here to raise money to provide 24 million meals. The cost for 1 million meals? About $5,000, or 0.005 cents per meal. That seems a shockingly low price to keep people alive.

As we let our leaders and leaders-to-be hash out the political strategies, the need for people-to-people connection remains. We are proud that Abilenians and West Texans are united in this effort. On this July 4 weekend, it's a reminder of America's great giving power and world leadership. Our examples are followed.

Information on how to help with any GSR project can be found at www.globalsamaritan.org.